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informal urbanism in sham shui po
informal urbanism in sham shui pooooooooooooooooo
Conte nts the site: shamshuipo
methodology
Shanni Liu
findings + analysis
Dec 2016
reflections / suggestions
Sham Shui Po has been famous for its rigor, hybridity and messiness. One of my friends went on a site visit with me one time, and after walking for an hour around the neighborhood, we finally sat down to a small, clean corner to take a break. She said both happily and bitterly: “This is finally a place without dirtiness!”
True. It looks very dirty when the streets are left with randomly abandoned trash after a long, hectic day of commercial activities at night; when the back alley is filled up by construction materials and kitchen disposals from the restaurants; when people are selling their goods on the ground and arbitrarily display them for sale.
the site: shamshuipo
What I’m interested in is the rhythm behind such chaos, and through investigation and presentation to re-cultivate connection out of displacement that is commonly experienced in a capitalist society. Sham Shui Po is an excellent site to study both connection and chaos, gifted with a strong sense of community as an old working class neigh-
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borhood, and rigorous commercial exchanges in various channels.
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One of the most chaotic, and rhythmic, phenomena is
everyday street life that could be conserved and assim-
the guerilla sale by unlicensed hawkers in informal spac-
ilated into future urban design? With these questions, I
es around the district. It usually occurs during peripheral
focused primarily on the spatial and locational qualities of
time periods, early in the morning or late at night, when
major hotspots of guerilla sale in Sham Shui Po. By seeking
the normal commercial activities are inactive, as well as
the answers to how and why such selection, occupation
on weekends, when potential customers are in greatest
and adaptation of space take place, the others aspects
quantity. The spaces are often claimed from voids of urban
such as human player and materiality naturally come in at
structures and adapted in creative ways: infrastructure un-
various points.
derspaces, sidewalks, building edges, driveways, alleyways, and even vehicles. The goods being sold are largely sec-
The abundance of goods and materials for exchange,
ond-hand, and surprisingly collected in a variety of ways.
benefiting from Sham Shui Po’s former role as a commer-
The people are composed of several types: the elderly,
cial and industrial center, have provided opportunities for
grassroots young and middle-aged people, single mothers,
intensive exchanges. The rigorous second-hand market
South Asians and other minorities, etc. In summary, guerilla
that was first developed by South Asians in the district has
sale involves spaces, people, and materials left over as the
facilitated exchanges that fueled more layers of informal
undesired part of the urban economy chain in Hong Kong.
sales activities. Grid blocks and wide streets definitely have advantage in developing such type of informal activities.
My question is whether the value of such activities is as
The dominant working class population and large propor-
marginal and inferior as its physical form and social-eco-
tion of elder people in the area have generated the need
nomic status. Are there interesting phenomena within the
for such informal sale for the sake of survival and occupa-
selection of sites, circulation of materials and interaction
tion of public space for social interaction.
among people? Would there be valuable aspects of urban
methodology
The study comprises largely of fieldwork, which includes direct observation and casual interviews. Due to my lack of prior experience in such type of research, it took me quite a while to figure out the more proper way to examine the sites and collect data. Below I’ve summa-
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rized the details of my visits to the site.
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Date
Occasion
Site
Duration
Activities*
Oct 1 - 2
National Day
Late Night Market;
12AM-1AM;
DO + CI
(Sat - Sun)
of PRC
Early Morning Market 5AM-8AM
Oct 10 - 11
Chung Yeung Late Night Market ;
(Mon - Tue)
Festival
Early morning streets 6AM-7 AM
Nov 6
/
Evening Market
4PM-7PM
DO + CI
/
Area north of the
2PM-5PM
DO
10PM-12AM; DO + CI
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(Sunday)
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Nov 12 (Saturday) Nov 20 (Sunday)
MTR station /
Entire central area of 8AM-9 PM
DO + CI
Sham Shui Po south of the MTR station
Visit 1 and 2 were arranged with purpose to visit specific events and locations, respectively the early morning market and late night market; visit 3 and 5 cover a larger area in Central Sham Shui Po, while the latter spans over a whole day with intention to examine the overall picture extensively. Visit 4 has explored the other area missed out in
In the final review on Dec 1, 2016, the reviewer Dorothy Tang has rec-
take interest in the things they are selling, and meanwhile one could
ommended me a book called <Sidewalk City> by Annette Kim. After I
ask about the origin of the objects as well as at what time and for how
read the book I found that my research method in part overlaps with
long the hawkers have been selling, and if the conversation goes well,
hers, while her study is much more comprehensive and intensive with
I asked further about where they live, their primary occupations if any,
a rigorous data collection process. One generally starts by walking
their purpose of selling, their experiences and opinions of the space,
around in the neighborhood to get familiar with the place and activities
etc.
that happen in the space, identifying key areas, players and characteristics. Then when one passes by a place a second time one could give
It is more efficient to find key interviewees who are not only familiar
more detail examination of the qualities. During the visits I took photo-
with the situations but also willing and able to share information in a
graphs, marked locations and time on maps, drew diagrams and wrote
clear manner. Such people Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve encountered include hawkers (mid-
observations on sketchbook. When main aspects are identified through
dled-aged men and women, elder women) and professional buyers
silent observations, it is then important to talk to the people involved
who visit the guerilla markets regularly and sell the purchased goods
to get further information that could fill the missing puzzle.
at a higher price later.
It requires some strategies to efficiently track down the activities and
The limitation of the research process of this independent study large-
their development over time given that they take place in different
ly owes to my inexperience in fieldwork and the independent nature
locations of the district and I am on my own to collect data. In my last
of this course -- I cannot conduct extensive surveys of sites as what
visit, having identified the hotspots of guerilla sales, I went to all the
Kim has done. But it also leads to the strength -- I am able to be in the
major locations within a certain period of time, and then repeat in the
situation solitarily and merge with the objects, and therefore engage in
next period. The priority has been given to those that are most active at
more direct, personal connections with the interviewees, also attract-
the time, thanks to the information collected during casual interviews
ing less attention than a large group of researchers. Unfortunately,
with the hawkers and buyers previously.
ince the purpose was not initially clear and became gradually defined later over a certain period of time, much of the findings cannot com-
Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve also, through trials and errors, developed strategies for conversations with the hawkers. One of the good ways to start a dialogue is to
pose quantitative data that are ready to be interpreted.
The investigation was carried out with questions similar to those asked by Kim: Who are those unlicensed hawkers, who are often overlooked in SSPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s public spaces? What are
findings + analysis
their spatial practices? When and where do their commercial activities occur? How and why do they use the spaces in particular ways?
An overall mapping of the location of guerilla sale and its change over time is first presented, and out of this several hot zones emerge, which are later analyzed in detail. Spatial qualities, relevant surroundings and circulation have been primarily manifested through drawings, supplemented with photographs and textual descriptions. Community interactions are presented here through images and texts, but could be later developed into diagrams and collages. Miscellaneous yet interesting details observed from the activities supplement the major findings. Excerpts from the casual interviews are also included in some sections to enable multiple narratives -- not just the one developed by me.
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5 am - 7 am
7 am - 9 am
9 am - 11 am
11 am - 2 pm
2 pm - 5 pm
5 pm - 7 pm
7 pm - 10 pm
10 pm - 12 am
Periphery ----> Center Isolated Patches ----> Converged core
#loosely organised event TIME 5:10 -- a few hawkers 5:40 -- many have arrived and set up 6:00 -- there are still a few taking out their stuff 6:30 -- already quite light, there are some people looking around 6:50 -- when the customer number reaches its peak, quite vibrant 7:00 -- a few start to pack stuff 7:20 -- many are still selling SPACE -- along the flyover -- each occupies a spot, which is not necessarily fixed
Location Choice / Pedestrian Flow
Flyover Commune
#tightly knit people -- among hawkers, between hawker and customer e.g. 1 -- a regular customer found a bike for a fat girl hawker to exercise more, and her booth is just by the entrance of a park e.g. 2 -- vibrant conversations between hawkers and customers e.g. 3 -- the two grandpas whom I asked for directions reappeared at the market later, one of them saying “I’m just walking around”, and reappeared seated next to a grandma selling stuff, happily smiling and chatting demography: hawkers -- all Chinese, mostly elder people, a few middle-aged men customers -- mostly Chinese, some South Asians, elderly and middle-aged
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WHEN -- 5 - 7 am, weekends and public holidays WHERE -- under West Kowloon Corriodor, next to Tung Chau Street Park WHO -- mostly elderly people living nearby the district WHAT -- miscellaneous household items HOW -- casual selling WHY -- for social gathering and extra pocket money
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*the hawkers seem to develop relationships with the homeless who build temporary shelter under the flyover next to their booths
There were quite some people passing by the entrance area, and walking into the park across after looking around at the goods being sold. Some go further into the temporary market.
#borrowed time, space and objects TIME 5 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 7 am -- off working hours, catering to the elderlyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sleeping habits SPACE under a flyover (West Kowloon Corridor) behind the more formal jade market and temporary market, with a park on the other side -- blocked away from outsideâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attention since temporary hawkers are afraid of being caught -- attract by-passers who go to the park to exercise in the morning -- shelter from rain -- leftover space activated OBJECTS part of their collection comprise of goods kindly given by neighbours -- a middle-aged man specialises in clothes and cosmetics, disclosing that those are free cosmetic samples handed or mailed out by companies and he takes advantage of it, reselling it for a price -- there was another man in his early thirties walking around and chatting with the hawkers, while looking for interesting objects. He seems to be among those who take advantage of the cheap prices at those second-hand markets and resell the selected objects at a higher price -- at some booths there are food and snacks from convenient stores that have just passed their best-before date. I suppose these hawkers get them for free or at a very low price, selling to those who cannot afford food with normal price
The old people usually sell miscellaneous household items while middle-aged ones do jades, old CDs and other more valuable deals. The objects are casually displayed on ground with no particular division of categories - one can see chocolate and telephone placed next to each other.
Location Choice / Community Communal atmosphere seems to be the key to this location. The hawkers, nearby residents and restaurant owners have a good interaction with one another. Hawkers here seem to have stayed here for quite long, without moving to elsewhere.
Kai Fong Corner 0
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WHEN -- 7 am to 7 pm, weekends and public holidays WHERE -- at the crossroad of Pei Ho St. and Hai Tan St. WHO -- a few middle-aged and old women and man WHAT -- miscellaneous household items HOW -- casual selling WHY -- for social gathering and extra pocket money
ir , the hile p u w t n e a to s . Me d t e r g a d n st ers he e dings a t k y w b il ha ings e bu ew f d h l t i a m de bu g, . t fro rnin er the nclu viduals i u o y o m e d e indi . Th arly ted un o com s d e d n o a o tt from lls, sea mily star eir g a ng f a i h s t t t t , r s t ld den Sta do ok a n o resi l a y e l ng som sted you e r e int
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Location The hawker bazzar takes place between building blocks and a major driveway with six lanes in two directions. Vendors occupy the two edges of the sidewalk -- those closer to the buildings sit on the stair in front of shops or their own small portable chair, while the others who sell goods at the outer edge stand or sit at the edge of the driveway, with buses constantly passing by them at the back.
Sidewalk Collective 0
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WHEN -- 7 am to 7 pm, weekends and public holidays WHERE -- along Yen Chow St. between Apliu St. and Ki Lung St. opposite to Dragon Centre WHO -- elder men and women, middle-aged and young men, all Chinese WHAT -- miscellaneous household items, watches, old cash notes, jade, flowers, etc. HOW -- serious and casual selling WHY -- most need to earn, some elderly for social gathering and extra pocket money
Crowd passing by the sidewalks at Yen Chow St.
Location Choice / Pedestrian Flow The hawkers gather along the section of Yen Chow Street sidewalk between Apliu Street and Ki Lung Street, and right across the road there is the Dragon Centre, a major shopping mall in the region since 1994, and the largest in West Kowloon until the Elements opened above the Kowloon MTR station. As observed, many locals go there on weekends for shopping and leisure, so selling goods nearby the bypassers seems to be a sensible choice. Another source of customers could be people walking from Apliu Street, famous for its cheap electronic products and accessories and attracting customers from all over Hong Kong. The pedestrian flow at the temporary hawker bazzar remains high during weekend days, and reaches its peak at noon and in the evening.
Hawkers in the mist of vehicles and pedestrians
Community The hawkers at the sidewalks generally support each other when in need, possibly partly thanks to the relative harshness of their environment.
The two active blocks mainly provide two types of spaces: sidewalks and alleyways. While sales in the former is under inspection, selling in the latter will not be interfered by FEHD staff, but less people will pass by alleyways. Vendors choose their sales location based on their priorities.
“I followed my neighbor who’s selling goods here. I like being out although I don’t sell much stuff, since staying at home alone is a bit too boring. I’ve been here for more than two months, and neighbors -- says an old female hawker at Yen Chow St. who is always happy and smiling
will pass by and give me things they don’t need for sale.”
Demography There is a mix of old and middle-aged hawkers in this area. While the elder mostly sell miscellaneous household items such as apparel, utensils, toys, etc., the middle-aged and younger sell specific categories with higher value potential such as old cash notes, watches, jades, classic audio-visuals, etc. Most are quite serious to sell goods for money, while some elderly do it for social interactions and extra pocket money to buy drinks and fresh fruits.
Spatial Negotiation Compared to the spaces under the flyover and at the sheltered street corner, this is a relatively exposed and unstable type of selling space, where the hawkers need to flexibly respond to the regular inspection by staff from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD). According to some of the hawkers, FEHD staff usually drop by a few times, up to as many as five times, a day during weekends, and when they come all the hawkers by the sidewalk will need to pack their goods and go somewhere else, since they are regarded to have blocked the proper passage of pedstrians. From my observation, there is indeed a relatively high amount of pedestrian flow during peak hours such as noon time and evening, and the sidewalk is quite crowded with people, but since the hawkers occupy only less than half of the entire area in a nonintrusive manner, I don’t think their presence is causing a problem to the original function of the sidewalk. On the other hand, they actually add to the vibrance of the walking space that has partly been lessened by the heavy vehicle transportation and indoor shopping mall across the road.
At peak hours, pedestrians, hawkers and vehicles are spatially very close to each other, and the division between sidewalk, sales area and driveway is blurred
Old lady selling flowers on the street, adapting existing railings for display
Another important role in this informal economy is the semi-professional buyers who can discriminate valuable goods from the hawkers and resell them at a much higher price. They especially love to hunt for things in limited edition, such as electronic products and old cash notes, that are primarily sold by younger vendors.
The hawkers occupy only less than half of the entire area of sidewalk in a nonintrusive manner, well-integrated into the surrounding
Location Choice / Stability and Enclosure Compared with the sidewalk, alleyway is a good choice for those who seek stable selling space and sense of enclosure reminiscent of conventional shops. As has been mentioned earlier, alleys are free from authority inspection since the presence of hawkers there does not interfere with major pedestrian flow. The potential of alleyways to develop into a mature market space could therefore be quite high, compared with sidewalks that immediately neighbors major vehicle roads.
Alleyway Market
WHEN -- 7 am to 5 pm, weekends and public holidays WHERE -- between the building blocks along Yen Chow St. between Apliu St. and Ki Lung St. opposite to Dragon Centre WHO -- elder men and women, middle-aged men and women, most Chinese and some South Asians WHAT -- miscellaneous household items (apparel, utensils, appliances, etc.), watches, old cash notes, etc. HOW -- serious and casual selling WHY -- most need to earn, some elderly for social gathering and extra pocket money
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The timid old man at the narrower lane
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A customer looking at the items displayed at the wider alley
Spatial Adaptation
General Observations
A common strategy shared by both the narrower and wider alley users is to take advantage of the vertical surfaces of the buildings for display of items. This includes attaching ropes, bamboo and metal sticks to pipes, lines, air-conditioner shelves, door frames and other projecting structures on the outer walls. The way in which hawkers in the wider alley claim the space is bolder. They sell items of larger size and quantity, their grounds stalls are wider, and their supporting structures of display are more complex.
In the same two blocks outside which the hawkers are selling goods by the sidewalks, there are two alleyways, one in each, where hawkers are present. The narrower alley has three vendors who are selling, all of whom with quite timid personality and less will to socialize or expose themselves to bypassers. The wider valley, by contrast, is crowded with hawkers and customers from one end to another, almost resembling a proper outdoor market. People seem to come from all directions, possibly coming out from the back doors of the residential buildings surrounding the alleys after waking up late in the morning. One middle-aged lady in the crowded alley says sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s already been selling goods here for more than a decade, indicating the maturity of such informal sales activities.
One downside of staying for long hours in the alleyways, however, is the relatively undesirable environment in the negative space of building blocks. The lady whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been here for more than a decade reveals her unpleasant experience in summer when air-conditioners keep emitting heat from the interior. This could be one technical aspect for consideration in future design of public spaces in the alleyways.
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Spatial Difference The reason why the wider alley is much more populate than the narrower one is not only that spatial dimensions are different. Walking past the third hawker in the narrower alley, one would immediately see construction materials and miscellaneous items piled together like trash along one edge of the lane. Obviously the environment is not so welcoming, and this is probably unavoidable due to other activities that take place in the alleyway. Accommodating the conflict between existing use of alley and proposed programs in design shall be considered in future attempts.
Location Choice / Accessibility
Relationship
The key moment in this narrow alley occurs when a restaurant owner dropped by at noon time. He quickly approached the hawkers from his restaurant further in the alley, handed lunchboxes one by one and talked to them briefly, and then soon disappeared back in the alley. The old lady says that this happens everyday when they are here, and if this kind gentleman does not offer free lunch to her, the humble money sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s earned would have been gone by the end of the day.
The timid man in the narrower alley talking with his customers
For residents from buildings within the same block, alleyways could be very accessible to them as a market space. One could pass by the hawker bazzar on their way to outside destinations from the back door and pick up something from the casual stroll. For outside visitors, alleyway is simultaneously a passageway from one side of the block to the other, and a hideout destination when there is need to escape from the hectic vibe of the proper streets. It maintains a good balance of the public and private, the mobile and static, the open and enclosed.
The suitable width of the wider alley allows the users to retain visual access to the outside while maintaining sense of enclosure and privacy.
Driveway outlet
Location Choice / Transportation
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One of the primary reasons why the South Asians choose this area as their major field seems to be for the convenience of transportation. Compared with the small scale of goods sold by individual hawkers at the flyover, sidewalks and alleyways, their goods often come in large quantity, and it would be unfeasible to carry them without vehicles. In addition, their illegal status as unlicense hawkers requires high flexibility and mobility, selling on driveways enables them to respond to inspections quickly -- when the authority come they could just drive away. Moreover, since they initially often drive their trucks around to collect second-hand items from households and waste collection points, 1 selling items right in their trucks becomes a very efficient option.
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WHEN -- 11 am to 7 pm, weekends and public holidays WHERE -- along the outer edges of the sidewalks on Tai Nan St. (between Pei Ho St. and Nam Cheong St.) and Nam Cheong St. (between Lai Chi Kok Rd. and Ki Lung St.) WHO -- middle-aged and young South Asian men (majority), accompanied by a few middle-aged South Asian women, some old and middle-aged Chinese men, joined by a few middle-aged Chinese men and women in the evening WHAT -- apparel (clothing, bags, shoes), electronic products (phones and cameras), accessories and parts, electrical appliances (TV, cooker, loudspeaker, etc), media (old books, CDs / DVDs, tapes, etc.), accessories (watches, glasses, antiques, etc), old cash notes, etc. HOW -- serious, organized selling WHY -- most need to earn
The interior space of a van is also used to display items. Half of the driveway becomes a casual sales space here.
1 Information regarding the origin of their goods comes from several sources: casual conversations with the South Asian woman helping out at the driveway in the afternoon of Nov 6, 2016, a young Chinese female professional buyer encountered at Yen Chow St. sidewalk in the eve-
A Pakistani man standing on his truck and talking to his customer.
ning of Nov 6, 2016, and a middle-aged Chinese female hawker-con-scavenger met at Nam Cheong St. in the evening of Nov 20, 2016.
General Observations Starting from late morning, the portion of Tai Nan St. close to Nam Cheong St. become gradually saturated with hawkers selling large quantities of goods, from apparel to electronic products, almost everything secondhand. Some vehicles such as vans and small trucks park at the edge of the driveway, opening up their boot lid and side doors with goods displayed inside. Most of the hawkers selling are South Asians, especially Pakistanis, according to one of the Chinese ladies selling nearby. When one reaches Nam Cheong St., one would be overwhelmed by the number of â&#x20AC;&#x153;vehicle stallsâ&#x20AC;? alongside the sidewalk, together with the people who are hawking, looking, talking and buying. The bustling atmosphere continues into the evening, when crowds stroll along the sidewalk of Nam Cheong St. like treasure hunting in a proper night market. The South Asian men seem to have a strong network developed and have dominated this area with their enthusiasm. Items are displayed on the driveway by the sidewalk next to the vehicles.
Bustling crowd in the evening.
Trucks, goods and many pedestrians at the wide and open Tai Nan St.
Goods With large vehicles, the South Asian hawkers are able to carry, display and sell large quantities of goods each time. The quality of their goods is also often quite high. As revealed by a middle-aged Chinese female hawker-con-scavenger met at Nam Cheong St, some of the South Asians maintain ties with staff at refuse collection points and buy disposed items of decent quality, and are therefore able to obtain goods of large variety and quantity to attract customers. Second-hand shoes of brand new look being neatly displayed by the street.
Piles of clothes, toys, beddings and even furniture at Nam Cheong St. informal night market.
Location Choice / Proximity to Centre As evening approaches, the hot zone of informal sale starts to recess, and hawkers on night shift start to set up around the central area of Sham Shui Po, namely at portions of Tai Nan St., Pei Ho St. and Kweilin St. close to the Pei Ho Street Municipal Services Building. The night market is bustling with crowds of all kinds, from elderly to couple, from family to South Asian youth. Setting up booths outside formal hawkers stalls and at corners of major roads, now free of vehicles, enable the vendors to attract more customers who pass by.
Spatial Reclamation Some of the unlicensed vendors set up their temporary stalls next to the proper hawker stalls, making themselves more accessible to pedestrians. A few even make use of the stall structure for display. Others put their goods next to railings on the edge of the roads. The structures unavailable to them during the day become creatively
A lady using the verticle net, part of the hawker stall, to hang the clothes she is selling, and put the shoes right in front of the stall, while herself seated at the side.
The standard set for an individual hawker: goods for display, small foldable carts with wheels, larger four-wheel carts and paper boxes for transporting heavier and larger items, and a chair for seating. The spatial arrangement of these objects surrounding a railing is also quite typical.
Relationship Two moments represent the communal atmosphere present at the evening and late night informal market: a Mandarin speaking lady, casually standing by the street, is talking to her friend while selling her goods; two middle-aged Chinese men are chatting about their bicycles at street corner.
Kaisi Gathering 0
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WHEN -- 7 pm to 12 am, some weekdays, weekends and public holidays WHERE -- Central Sham Shui Po - portion of Tai Nan St., Pei Ho St. and Kweilin St. close to the Pei Ho Street Minicipal Services Building WHO -- middle-aged and elder women and men WHAT -- apparel (clothing, bags, shoes), electronic products (phones and cameras), accessories and parts, electrical appliances (TV, cooker, loudspeaker, etc), old books, CDs / DVDs, tapes, accessories (watches, glasses, antiques, etc), old cash notes, suitcases, etc. HOW -- serious and casual selling WHY -- most need to earn, some elderly for social gathering and extra pocket money
What parameters are important to the hawkers in choosing their locations? Flyover Commune
Kai Fong Corner
Proximity to customers Away from inspectors Relationships with other hawkers Relationships with customers Relationships with nearby people Close to central activities Mobility Stability Privacy Physical enclosure Physical comfort (noise, heat, security)
Least important
Most important
Characteristic of the location
Sidewalk Collective
Alleyway Market
Driveway Outlet
Kaisi Gathering
Priorities Vary among User Groups
The Common Need: Social Connection
From the summary above one can observe that each group of users have different priorities in choosing their location.
The common need for users of all locations seems to be social connection.
For the elderly who do not have the pressure to earn, such as those under the flyover, communal atmosphere, stability, and physical comfort become important in choosing a place to sell at. While for those, young or old, who need to make part of their living out of this, proximity to customers and central activites (commercial or transportational) is crucial, despite the instability and physical discomfort that come along at the same time at locations such as the sidewalks at Yen Chow St. Ethnic minorities, in this case the South Asian male hawkers, prefer to stay with their own community. Another important consideration goes to convenience of transportation since they carry their considerable quantity of goods on trucks and vans. Alleyway seems to be the location with a balanced combination of all parameters. It retains a moderate level of accessibility, privacy, stability, and visibility.
In early morning the majority who are awake and walking on the streets shall be the elderly, and parks are one of the most popular destinations for them to do morning exercises, and therefore selling goods nearby the park under flyover is reasonable. Some hawkers at the flyover had lively conversations with each other, customers or just friends who come to visit when I was there doing visit. The hawkers at Kai Fong Corner seem to have known their customers and nearby restaurant owners quite well, judging from their dialogues. Vendors by the sidewalk at Yen Chow St. have become familiar with each other and developed bonding. When one hawker needs to leave for washroom, the other will look after the stall for her; and people share their humble resources too -- when I sat down with the stool a grandma gave me, the other middle-aged man immediately shared his stool with her. Once in the narrower alleyway, a middle-aged man who seems to be a shop manager in his suits came visit the old man who is selling near the opening. They casually exchanged greetings and seem to have known each other for quite long. Evening and late night informal market nearby Kaisi is very lively and filled with conversations. Old men who have obsessions for old watches affectionately appreciate them together with their small flashlights, middle-aged female hawker from mainland talks with her friend-con-customer for long by the street.
Case Study: Sidewalk vs Alleyway
The red lines with arrow show a typical driving route for a buyer from Sai Ying Pun on Hong Kong Island. The blue circle refers to where the wood sculpture seller is standing -- the best proper location for vehicles to stop at on Yee Kuk Street.
Extreme Example: The Wood Sculpture Seller Proximity to Customer = High Pedestrian Flow? Almost every hawker at the sidewalk of Yen Chow St. complained to me that there are so many people looking, but scarcely anyone buying their goods. Meanwhile I see a good quantity of customers giving money to the vendors in the wider alleyway that the hawkers at the sidewalk commonly regard as being lack of bypassers. It seems that the proportion of buyers out of bystanders is higher in the alley than at the sidewalk, and the reason may be that there are more regular bypassers in the alley than at the sidewalk. Since the alleyway is accessible to residents in the surrounding buildings who get out from their back doors, chances are that they are familiar with the hawkets in the alley and would buy things from them regularly. In comparison, as a major sidewalk where all kinds of people pass by for different purposes, including tourists and residents from other parts of the district, it is therefore harder to form a communal ecology and stable relationship at the sidewalk than in the alley. In a word, sidewalks at major roads tend to be less a place than alleys within neighborhoods.
One could have high proximity to customers without having any bypassers over the period. I met this strange wood sculpture seller, a middle-aged Chinese man, who was standing at a street corner with almost no vehicle nor pedestrian flow, isolated from the surrounding. The sculptures he was selling are exquisite, and expensively priced (on average a few hundred) compared to the general standard. After talking to him I realized that his customers are mostly not from Sham Shui Po, but elsewhere in Hong Kong.
They usually drive to his location, pick up the items, and leave immediately. He could stay here only from 11am to 4pm on weekends, catering to his customer’s shopping time. Compared to most hawkers’, especially the old’s, old-fashioned way of sitting and waiting for customers to take a look, this man’s selling strategy seems to be much more up to date with the modern culture of place -- one that is non-physical and ephemeral.
infrastructure
building edge
sidewalk edge
alleyway
driveway I
driveway II
railing
occupied area open sheltered hide from inspection mobility stability privacy connected with surrounding physical comfort interaction agency
Low
High
Variable - low to high
Characteristic of the space
Spatial Prototypes + Characteristics
hawker stall
*: means primary function
EXAMPLE flyover footbridge
EXAMPLE Nam Cheong St. Tai Nan St.
USER good for elderly hawkers
FUNCTION* provides shelter + physical enclosure
EXAMPLE
USER
entrance staircase door frame
good for middle-aged and elder hawkers seeking security while maintaining connections
infrastructure
driveway I
EXAMPLE Tai Nan St.
FUNCTION connect with surrounding enhance social interaction
building edge
EXAMPLE Yen Chow St.
FUNCTION visible to pedestrians high mobility
EXAMPLE wider alley
driveway II
USER good for young and middle-aged hawkers seeking exposure to potential customers while willing to stand the potential instability and discomfort
USER good for young and middle-aged hawkers who trade goods of large quantities FUNCTION enables large sum of goods to be exchanged high mobility
sidewalk edge
railing
FUNCTION enables large sum of goods to be exchanged
USER good for young and middle-aged hawkers who trade goods of large quantities, while willing to stand the exposure to inspection
EXAMPLE informal market at multiple periods and locations
USER good for middle-aged and old hawkers
FUNCTION provides physical security while maintaining openness to customers enhances social interaction
USER EXAMPLE evening and late night informal market
good for middle-aged and old hawkers not seeking immediate customer exposures while wishing to be free from inspection
FUNCTION some provide shelter provides security, enclosure, stability and privacy helps hide from inspection enhance social interaction
alleyway
hawker stall
USER good for middle-aged and old hawkers
FUNCTION provides physical security while maintaining accessibility to customers
Relationships
The humble act of bending oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s back to look at the items displayed enables the customer and the hawker to be closer to each other.
The tightly knit relationships among the people seems to be the real reason why this informal economy continues to be present and flourish.
The proximity of informal stalls to neighborhoods and its physical exposure enable close contact between hawkers and customers, and no less importantly, among customers themselves.
Monetary exchanges are not all in these informal activities, there are also continuous kindness and generosity to strangers, or other members of a larger community.
Materials
Informal Industry Built Upon Connections
Channels of recycling:
Spaces of temporary storage:
(organised) Van going around to collect second-hand furniture and appliances especially when people are moving home -- goods are later displayed and sold often on the van
#not satisfactory
(organised) Goods directly from factories that intended to discard overdue products
Industrial buildings (large scale) Home (small scale) On streets (meticulously tied together, however, still has a possibility to be stolen, concerned by the property department)
(semi-organised) goods from shops that are moving with excessive items goes to group or individual hawkers -- e.g. skinny grandma at Yen Chow St.
Players:
or people moving home, selling unwanted items to individual hawkers -- e.g. middle-aged lady at wider alley (spontaneous) Individual exchange between building cleaners and hawkers, garbage collectors (popos) and hawkers, goods could include more valuable ones like crafts and appliances
Individual and in group Young, middle-aged (most) to old South Asian Young (fewer) middle-aged to old (most) Chinese #female and male usually sell different types of goods Hawkers, customers, and professional buyers
-- e.g. Flower vase and table sculpture at the late night informal market: from household in private estates to the clean ladies, and then to the temporary hawkers (spontaneous) Gifts from neighbours to individual hawkers (usually old people doing mini business)
#Infinite addition of value: I’ve also met a group of middle-aged people who seem to be quite savvy of what the situation is like, and attempt to hunt for cheap, exotic goods in the hawker market so that they can resell it as antique or rare things with higher value at a higher price. This is almost like lifting the goods up in the food web. The fluctuation of value becomes a norm and one of the most fascinating parts of the exchanges.
Trends: “I used to sell more easily. Now too many items are discarded, so this type of selling has become an industry, and more individual hawkers are joining the trade. It is therefore becoming competitive and very hard to earn money.” -- says skinny grandma at Yen Chow Street
“In the past those Pakistani girls would buy these second-hand clothes, now their salary rises and no longer need to buy them anymore.” -- accroding to grandma in green at narrower alley
“Now too many items are discarded, it’s becoming very hard to sell.”
-- says grandma
Display
chaotic
The most common quality among all displays of goods is the chaotic composition. Uncategorized and spread onto surfaces, the items on display look strikingly similar in composition to the discards found in alleyways of Sham Shui Po.
hybrid + excessive Carrying large quantity of goods, the vehicles become spaces for display apart from being the transportation tool and temporary storage space, and therefore becoming a hybrid object. Making the maximum use of space available, the hawkers fill their trucks and vans excessively with items of all kinds.
Claiming the spaces not intended for selling, the hawkers have creatively invented a variety of ways to display their items. The most common type is to spread things out on the ground; less usual methods include hanging goods on vertical surfaces, making use of existing structures, and exploiting storage space.
spontaneous
This simple act of putting items onto a flat surface onto a cardboard box exemplifies the spontaneity of street display.
Super Van
additive
indicative Less visibility in the alleyway could be shortcoming, but the hawker here cleverly puts some of his goods at the entrance area on the sidewalk, so that bypassers could be attracted to go in and see more.
adaptive Some hawkers adapt to existing structures and make them functional for supporting display. In the left picture, the hawker in the alleyway hangs long bamboo sticks onto air-conditioner shelf to make a temporary wardrobe. Beneath is the movable cart as platform for shoes, so that they can be transported easily without any further effort. One can see similar strategy utilised in a different context in the image on the right -- the vertical net of the hawker stall is appropriated as hanging structure.
Simply added to existing environment, the goods have easily blended with the surrounding, enjoying a good level of bypassing frequency and visibility.
Appendix - Relax Anywhere
Claiming Building Edges
Appropriating Street Objects
Stand and Wonder
Conclusion After assessing the characteristics of the spatial prototypes that
The sense of hybridity in the use of space, display of material and
emerged out of the several locations of informal selling, one
convergence of various social groups characteristic of the gueril-
could probably find out that alleyways are among all the most
la sales in Sham Shui Po impresses one with its rigor and organic
balanced type of space not only for sales activities but also for
rhythm once lost in the constant sanitization of the urban areas.
communal gathering and personal leisure. Could it be a poten-
Despite its marginal status in the current social-economic narra-
tial player in the design of future urban ecology? It is, never-
tive, the informal selling activities in Sham Shui Po provide valuable
theless, necessary to consider the current need of the users in
inspirations to urban designers and policy makers in understanding
the alleys and evaluate the potentials of alleys for development
the tactics of bottom-up spatial adaptation and the essential as-
before taking any action. Aspects such as the width of alleys, the
pects of everyday street life. These can be useful references when
age of the surrounding buildings, the most common existing
designing future urban spaces and their details such as infrastruc-
uses and the current community network shall be investigated.
tures, alleyways, sidewalks and railings to better cater to the need for spontaneity, hybridity and community.
As has been previously argued, despite the different priorities when selecting locations for selling, there is a common need for all users to maintain social connections. The spatial patterns and material flows at first seem to be spontaneous, but in fact actually originate from entangled community network that has been developed over time. It is therefore crucial to keep in mind the necessity of investigating, conserving and creating communal ecology in future research and design.
Selected References Borio, Géraldine, and Caroline Wüthrich. Hong Kong In-Between. Translated in Chinese by Ling Wong. Hong Kong: MCCM Creations; Zürich: Park Books, 2015. Ho, Wing Yung. “Trading Trash and Creating Destinies: Pakistani Community in a Second-hand Market in Hong Kong.” MSocSc thesis, City University of Hong Kong, 2010. Kim, Annette Miae. Sidewalk City: Remapping Public Space in Ho Chi Minh City. Chicago; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2015. Manish Chalana and Jeffery Hou. Messy Urbanism: Understanding the “Other” Cities of Asia. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2016. RTHK. “Shenshuibu Tianguang Dao Wuye 深水埗天光到午夜 (From Dawn to Midnight in Sham Shui Po).“ Accessed Oct 1, 2016. http://programme.rthk.org.hk/rthk/tv/programme.php?name=tv/hkcc& d=2016-01-10&p=858&e=339828&m=episode.
Oo OO 00 oo 0O oo oo
The value of retaining freedom for creative, adaptive, spontaneous and hybrid use of urban spaces has been well exemplified in the spatial practices of the guerilla hawkers. Converging the positive and the negative spaces, they activate infrastructures as ceilings, buildings as walls, and voids as spaces. However, such novel adaptation becomes normative again once not ephemeral, like the beauty of “aware” in Japanese aesthetics. It is therefore somehow tricky to retain the element of spontaneity and open-endedness in the practice of design. The case of Sham Shui Po has really raised this question of what design could do and when its function wanes -- I’ll leave it open here for further contemplation.
The same location in the narrower alleyway being used by different hawkers, revealing the beauty of leaving functions of certain infrastructures indeterminate.
reflections / suggestions
The reincarnation of matters through infinite attribution of values via sales activities is another interesting phenomenon to look at. As is a typical flow of an object, like the travel of a carbon atom through biogeochemical cycles, the object becomes commodified through display and is sold to consumers, and later is disgarded as trash, then picked up by someone who makes a living on scavenging, goes to a hawker who purchases it at a low price, and afterwards is resold to customers of the lower food web, possibly later lifted higher up in its value by professional buyers of antiques. The answer is, still, left open. But in reality, most people do not see the marginal activities of the decomposers of consumer society. By bringing
Spontaneity From this process we can see that the value of things fluctuate, based on our subjective perception, and obsession. If goods constantly become trash and trash converted to goods, what is the role of consumption in this process? Shall we consume more and disgard
Community
more so that others could obtain it at a lower price, and presumably live a better (material) life? Shall we obtain less so that othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pressure of digesting the remnants could be relieved?
Hybridity
these spaces, people and materials to visibility, this project hopes to cultivate understanding of the other part of the story, through reading chaos, to build empathy and evoke self-reflection.
Response to Comments at Final Review
In the final review on Dec 1, 2016, the reviewer Ms. Dorothy Tang has suggested that I look at dimensions of the sales spaces, which have been visualized through a series of analytical drawings in the third part of this report. Unfortunately the limited time does not allow me to produce more accurate, to-scale drawings and complete sets of circulation diagrams. Systematic research and investigation of the social dimensions of the guerilla sales have been difficult due to lack of hand as well as the information barrier present despite previous attempts, and the lack of time. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve tried to use quotes and small maps to let miscellaneous information stand out, as Dorothy has suggested, such as the visualization of the restaurant ownerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s route delivering free lunch to the alley hawkers. Further mapping of other commercial activities in juxtaposition with the current, as proposed by Mr. Gavin Coates, would be carried out in the next phase of this project. I hope the analysis presented here has partly responded to Ms. Vincci Makâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advice.